x"The fundamental terror that capitalism exploits is that we might not want anything."
— Adam Phillips
— Adam Phillips
x"You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting ‘Vanity,’ thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure."
— John Berger, Ways of Seeing
— John Berger, Ways of Seeing
x
from “Rainy Morning” by Louise Glück
Look at John, out in the world,
running even on a miserable day
like today. Your
staying dry is like the cat’s pathetic
preference for hunting dead birds: completely
consistent with your tame spiritual themes,
autumn, loss, darkness, etc.
We can all write about suffering
with our eyes closed. You should show people
more of yourself; show them your clandestine
passion for red meat.
x"But all her life the woman is to find the magic of her mirror a tremendous help in her effort to project herself and then attain self-identification. Man, feeling and wishing himself active, subjective, does not see himself in his fixed image; it has little attraction for him, since man’s body does not seem to be an object of desire, while women, knowing and making herself object, believes she really sees herself in the glass."
— Simone de Beauvoir, from The Second Sex
— Simone de Beauvoir, from The Second Sex
x"Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself."
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
x
an excerpt from “—shall become as—” by Evie Shockley
you put this pen
in my hand and you
take the pen from
my hand. the night
before the full moon
the moon seems
full. what is missing
is a dark hungry
sickle, the sliver
of shadow eating
us up inside.
x"I can feel the cells in me strengthening: a horse rising up in a field of broken wheat Van Gogh is painting the day he killed himself."
— Rauan Klassnik, from Holy Land
— Rauan Klassnik, from Holy Land
x
In Preparation for War, Warsan Shire
to my daughter i
will say, when the men come, set
yourself on fire.
x"A gentleman is simply a patient wolf."
— Lana Turner
— Lana Turner
